This invention relates to Drumstick organizing apparatus, and more particularly to a station which allows organization of drumsticks in a convenient and readily accessible location.
In a popular music band, a drummer plays an important part in the overall sound of the band. Usually, a drummer is called upon to play a variety of percussion instruments. These instruments or drums are usually arranged around the drummer's seat. They are arranged in this fashion so that the drummer can quickly move from one percussive instrument to the other, depending on the demand of the song being played. These instruments can range from kettle drums, snare drums, and the like to bells and cymbals. The common thread for playing each of these instruments is the use of a drumstick which is used to strike, hence, percuss the instruments to produce the desired sound. Each instrument may have its own characteristic drumstick, and some drums require more than one type of stick to produce different sounds. Further, during the course of the performance it is a frequent occurrence that the drummer may drop one of the sticks or the stick may even break. Accordingly, it is necessary for the drummer to have immediately available a variety of types of drumsticks in an easily accessible fashion.
One common way drummers have of organizing their sticks and making them readily available, is through what is referred to as a stick bag. This stick bag is usually a fabric construction which has a number of pockets which allow the various types of drumsticks to be organized, one type for each pocket. Because the pouch is usually constructed of fabric, it is readily foldable and is used not only for organizing the drumsticks, but also for transportation. The stick bag may be unfolded and placed in proximity to the drummer during performance, sometimes being hung from the side of the drum or the framework of the drum. An improvement of the conventional stick bag is found in Gardner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,724. Gardner provided a stick bag modified to become a stool cover so that the stick bag would fit over the drummer's stool. The pockets in the Gardner stick bag had platforms within them so as to make pre-selected drumsticks more readily accessible by having them stick out above the remaining drumsticks that are held within that particular pocket.
Another way of organizing drumsticks has been to use trays, which have individual compartments which allow the drummer to organize his sticks with like sticks being placed within each compartment of the tray. A modification of the drumstick tray is found in Gillis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,443 which discloses a percussion stick holder consisting of two or more tubes which are fixed together in a parallel, spaced apart, relationship and are attached to the drum stand or other instrument stand by means of a gripper. The tubes in the Gillis device are used to hold individual drumsticks. The tubes are spaced apart so as to make each drumstick held within each tube readily distinguishable from its neighbor held in an adjoining tube, thus, making it easy to individually grasp each drumstick held within each tube.
None of the foregoing, however, meet the complex demands placed on a percussive instrument player or drummer in a modern popular music band. The tempo or beat of the music may be extremely fast. A variety of drums are played sometimes in alternate or quickly successive fashion and the demands of the music make it necessary to have the drumsticks immediately available requiring a minimum of movement both from the hands and the eyes of the drummer from the percussive instrument at hand. Accordingly, it would be a significant advancement in the art to provide a separate drumstick station, which can be adjusted to the height and angle demanded by an individual drummer which is most suitable and convenient for his or her physical size and style of playing, so that the drumstick station will be at a level most convenient for viewing and for grasping drumsticks held within the station. Accordingly, it is an advantage to provide a holder of sufficient size to hold a variety of drumsticks or other devices used to percuss the drum or other percussive instrument. The drummer knowing that all of his needed sticks are at one location need not go through the cognitive process of trying to remember where a particular type of drumstick or other percussive device is stored. Additionally, it is a feature of this current invention to provide a telescoping support rod for the holder, which may be either supported by a free-standing base or may be attached to one of the legs of the drums or other percussive instruments which are being played. The telescoping feature of the support rod allows it to be adjusted by the individual drummer to a height most convenient for that drummer, both in terms of his line of sight and of his reach. Additionally, the holder may be attached to the support rod in a rotatable adjustable fashion, so as to allow the holder to be oriented at such an angle as to be most convenient for the drummer who is using the drumstick station. These and other features and objects of this invention will become more readily apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and claims.